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Sequential extraction of selected metals to assess their mobility, pollution status and health risk in roadside soil

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Abstract

Assessment of the mobility and contamination of trace metals in the roadside soil is important to explore the environmental quality and potential risks to the public health. The contents of selected metals (Ca, Mg, Sr, K, Na, Li, Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ag, Co, Ni, Cr, Cd and Pb) in the roadside soil collected from major highways/roadsides of Lahore, Pakistan were quantified employing mBCR sequential extraction. Among the metals, Ca, Sr and Na showed highest contribution in exchangeable fraction, Pb in the reducible fraction and K, Li, Fe, Ag, Ni, Cu and Cr in the residual fraction. However, Mg and Mn exhibited relatively higher contents in exchangeable and residual fractions while Cd, Co and Zn showed relatively higher concentration in all four fractions. Comparatively higher mobility and availability in the soil was shown by Ca followed by Sr, Pb, Na, Cd, Zn, Co, Mn, Cu, Ag and Ni. Principal component analysis demonstrated considerable anthropogenic contributions of the trace metals in the roadside soil. The pollution indices showed that the soil was heavily to extremely polluted by Cd and Ag, followed by significant to very high contamination for Co, Ni and Pb. The modified degree of contamination (4.60 and 3.99 in summer and winter, respectively) revealed an overall high degree of contamination. The health risk assessment revealed that the calculated risks were within the safe limit thereby indicating insignificant non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic heath risk to the populace.

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Data availability

The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The research facilities provided by Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan to carry out this project are thankfully acknowledged.

Funding

This study was partially funded by Higher Education Commission, Government of Pakistan, and Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan.

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  1. Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan

    Yasir Karim Khan & Munir H. Shah

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  1. Yasir Karim Khan
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YKK: methodology, investigation, data curation, formal analysis, validation, writing original draft. MHS: conceptualization, visualization, resources, software, supervision, writing/reviewing and editing. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Munir H. Shah.

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Khan, Y.K., Shah, M.H. Sequential extraction of selected metals to assess their mobility, pollution status and health risk in roadside soil. Environ Monit Assess 195, 552 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-023-11129-5

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